Finished Cru Quilt

Sitting here on a clear, cold afternoon surrounded by three kiddos trying so hard to get their work finished despite their energy.  Above me, the baby is jumping in her crib.

We are back to school but not too busy.  intentionally so.  which is why i haven't posted in nearly a month.  no rush to get back online.  the kids are growing too fast.  the internet, and my blog can wait.

Christmas was good, and I again used the break to bind a quilt.  Then took it outside to take pictures with Noelle and my brother's springer spaniel, Bentley. 

Oh, thank you for all the input on the backing.  We went with the Crosshatch Sketch for a neutral back.  I think it's perfect.    

Happy New Year! 

5 Gifts I'm Giving This Year

a few things I'm giving my family this year:

--a book to each kiddo, which they will sign immediately to record their current john hancock.  how sweet will be it be to open a beloved story years from now and see an early handwritten name?

--we're keeping our Christmas book collection under our tree all month for the kids to read to each other on schoolwork breaks.  we added this Christmas Carol picture book by Charles Dickens to our collection this year.

--a new Bible for each reading kiddo.  this year I bought Adventure Bibles for two of my kiddos and the Action Bible for my comic loving son.

--a stocking stuffer of school supplies (like these multicultural skin-tone markers) and band-aids (Sorette's favorite thing ever) to unwrap before we open gifts with others.  this will be a practice for receiving gifts with gratitude.  (read onethankfulmom here for her 5 Hints for Avoiding a Christmas Fiasco)

--i've had so much fun planning 12 Days of Christmas for matt.  each morning i'm giving him a small token of appreciation for who he is and all he does.  did i mention small?  they are small. on the first day of christmas, i gave him a pen.  people are always taking his around here.  i can't give more away, because he hasn't opened everything yet and he reads my blog, the sweet guy.  here's some printables i found too.

what are you giving?  

Girlfriends Gift

This was what I gave a few of my best girlfriends last year (because you can't expect me to post this year's).

A quick little quilted pouch with my favorite nail polish, by Rimmel and a Stila Lip Glaze, which I bought solely based on a Pioneer Woman's post. (although since using the glaze, i haven't been impressed, fyi.)

What are you giving the girls in your life?  how about the father-in-laws?  just kidding.  not really, i need ideas! 

WIP: An Ombre Plus Quilt

First, Happy Anniversary to my brother and sister in law!

They're going to have to wait til Christmas for this one, but here's what I'm working on...(inspired by the pia wallen crux blanket and this baby quilt)

Now for the backing...I've been thinking about a mustard or saffron whole cloth back like:

Anna Maria Horner's Field Study in Coordinates in Saffron (via Hawthorne Threads) or

Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons Wovens in Mustard (also via Hawthorne Threads)

but...it's not my quilt, so I'm just straight out asking my brother/sister in law who have way more creativity than me what I should use on the back.  I'm sure they will pick something in a completely different, but much better, direction.

What would you put on the back? 

Linking up for ideas at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday! 

How to Homeschool a 7 Year Old Boy

like I know.

but we've found something that's helped this year: Deconstruction.

 
After a really good day (or week) of diligence and hard work, my Samuel may earn a broken something to deconstruct, like this electric broom.   

How do you motivate your littles?  When we run out of broken stuff, I'll need some ideas, or some petty cash for the thrift stores...

First Quilt Contest Entry

Remember this quilt?  

I blogged about finishing the top last fall, but never posted once it was quilted. Now seems like a good time, since it's all autumnal and all and the Blogger's Quilt Festival is going on.

    

The idea came from a book called Quilting for Peace, where I saw one with shades of blue sawtooth stars.  It was beautiful.  

So I started one in shades of coral.  

88  sawtooth stars.  

It was slow and steady wins the race for this quilt, but I love it so it was worth it.

I had it professionally quilted last December by a woman who works at a local quilt shop.  I asked her to do an all over meander and avoid the stars.  She did such a tight meander and left the stars unquilted for me-which makes them really pop, don't you think? 

Then I took it home to my folks last Christmas and bound it fireside with my mom.  

Which is a pretty nice way to spend the holidays.  

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 67″x 88″

Special techniques used : detailed piecing

Quilted by : Martha Wolf

Best Category : Two Color Quilt, Professionally Quilted, Bed Size
Entry No: 425

Nominations begin November 1st, 

so check out all the beautiful entries if you haven't been over to the Festival yet!

More on my quilt here:

• WIP: Sawtooth Post
• Finished Sawtooth Quilttop 

Finished Cruz Quilt

Finished the binding on the Cruz quilt while catching up on Parenthood.  Ohmygoodness, is it getting sad.  Think I cried in both of the last two episodes.  Bleh.  But I love quilting while watching tv.

Fabrics: 

Robert Kaufman Apron Dot , 

Cloud 9 Nursery Gingham in Sky, 

Woodland Trails Bear in Blue,  (love this print)

Kona Snow. 

Think I'll have to make a girl version of this quilt in the future, maybe to give, maybe to keep.

What are you watching these days?

Our best year yet! What we do for School 2012

The kids are working semi-independently at the moment, so I thought I'd sum up what we're doing for the school year.  By the way, so far, this is going brilliantly and there is no sarcasm there.  I'm really pleased with what we're accomplishing!

• On Mondays we join our coop where my kids take all the sciences that are offered. This is me being realistic and thankful for other moms who like to teach science. They are also taking Latin (Prima Latina and Latina Christiana) with me! 

• Tuesdays, we are reading The Story of the World: Ancient Times and writing narrations of what we've read.  We do two days worth of Learning Language Arts through Literature to make up for Monday.  And we do a lesson in either Singapore Math (boys) or Saxon (Noelle). 

• On Wednesdays, I'm asking them to be pretty independent and do another LLATL lesson and math lesson, asking for help when they need it.  They finish any homework from coop, including their Latin lessons. They also have their piano lessons in the morning. 

• Thursdays are more like Tuesdays, but we will do a SOTW project and library book reading on the chapter we covered on Tuesday.   Two days worth of LLATL (to finish the week's lesson), and another math lesson.  

• We call Fridays Foundations Fridays because we do the Classical Conversations Foundations program with our friends.  This is so fun and impressive.  What the kids (and I) can memorize in a week's time is no less than amazing.  

I think this is the least number of subjects/workbooks/andsuch that I've ever used in the 5 years we've schooled at home.  But it's going swimmingly so maybe that is why?  I'm sure there are a number of factors (I've added a student-as Ben is now Kinder-age!) but I'm thankful!  

Hope you are loving a new season, too!